4 ms·
Copying random formulas out of a textbook is only a tiny part of writing programs, at least for me. Making this have slightly less friction just isn’t that big
by jacobolus 7y ago
Copying random formulas out of a textbook is only a tiny part of writing programs, at least for me. Making this have slightly less friction just isn’t that big a practical improvement for me. YMMV.
In general I see code or explanations relying on Greek letters as no better than ones with English words for names.
- ReidZB 7y agoFrom hours and hours of studying math, those symbols are imbued with implicit meaning - in a way, they are simultaneously a data type, a name, and often a purpose or context (e.g. delta-x). That's a lot of information for such a compact representation. And that's mostly unconscious, which is great. I really found the Julia example above to be far, far easier to understand than the linked JS (though I think that JS was not particularly great). To me, it seems like it'd be nice-to-have, but alone, I don't think it would be enough to make me switch languages.